W O R D S & W A T E R

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” - Lao Tzu

Words: I journal, have a notes app and make myself voice notes all the time as part of my personal practices but also as a way to formulate something to share in these blogs.

So many words floating about in my mind, needing to find somewhere to come ashore, to land.  Yet at other times my thoughts feel frozen, stuck or are hard to bring to the surface. Water: All the ways I use to describe the words in my head have a water-like quality. When they finally feel able to be shared, I feel in a state of flow.

I have connected with water in so many ways this last month.......and with words.

Shocked and scared by water at times recently ......experiencing a similar emotional reaction to the words we're hearing or reading so much of these days.

I have found other's words; spoken, written or sung have resonated very deeply, as if I have been more receptive, more open to receiving them. Yet my own words have been less clear or coherent, rattling in my head over decisions and plans that I have been preoccupied with or a general fear and lack of understanding of what's going on in the world right now. Seeing those words typed out, my description has dry-qualities, as if my rattling thoughts have been lacking the nourishing, cohesive and expansive water-qualities that I described above.

My ability to be present and connected with myself, nature and my practices ebbs and flows. That’s a natural pattern which we explored last term (Spanda).  I enjoy observing when I’m in the middle of that, however disconnected and unpleasant it feels at the time. Being able to notice thoughts and feelings, helps make the connection to how I may been feeling physically or showing up in day to day relationships or decisions - lets be honest here, it’s the experience of physical tension or discomfort that reminds me to notice how my head space is! How connected to my practices I am and to observe that I'm in the ebb rather than the flow!

On retreat recently one of the invitations was to find a sit spot. It was in a beautiful, ancient wooded area of Dartmoor, the floor covered in bluebells and on the edge of it ran the river. It was raining so thickly we were quickly so drenched it hardly seemed worth trying to keep dry! I found a reasonably sheltered spot by the river and watched the fast flow whilst noticing I had sat next to a little calm eddy, a space where the water seemed disconnected from all the movement around it. The feelings this evoked in me varied from feeling like I was watching life, other people and experiences whizz by without feeling part of them, to feeling a sense of patience, presence and stillness, not getting carried away with the rush, resting in a deeper, clearer experience. I often have a real desire to be doing everything all the time so I don’t miss out on anything, but that often means it all goes so fast without really experiencing the depths of each moment. To explore the depths is certainly a more solitary practice to start with ……we obviously need both.

Both the still eddy and the flow are part of the same river; which all returns to the ocean and evaporates back up into the atmosphere, eventually falling back to earth as rain, to land in the flow, the still eddy or onto the earth, seeping down into the layers of earth and rock before finding a source, from which to literally spring up to the surface again, fresh and pure.

‘The water in your body is just visiting. It was a thunderstorm a week ago. It will be the ocean soon enough. Most of your cells come and go like the morning dew. We are more weather pattern than stone monument. Sunlight on mist. Summer lightning. Your choices outweigh your substance.’ - Jarod K. Anderson

This cycle of water was beautifully elucidated in a brilliant novel I've just finished reading - There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak. (* find the link at the end)

I love that feeling when I  get so absorbed into a book  that everything else fades into the background, like being in the calm eddy whilst the river rushes by! I have always loved reading, but it is a special moment when a book hooks me like this.  I am fascinated how marks on a page can evoke such feelings. Words carry so much power; words conveyed can move us deeply, trigger buried emotions, and burst our hearts with joy and excitement. Words we read or hear can trap us, or set us free, can expand….or narrow our minds.

The English language is so limited, other languages have more words to describe subtle feelings and experiences which we just don’t have the vocabulary for. Often these languages emerge from places where the people are more connected to nature and to the universal energy of all life. I was recently introduced to the word Komorebi. 

 "KOMOREBI®  { 木漏れ日 } is the Japanese word for sunlight, which is filtered through the leaves of the trees. In particular, it means the visible light rays.“Komorebi” is composed of several parts of the word: “Ko” means tree or trees. “More” means: something that comes through, something that shines through or seeps through. “Bi” means: sun or sunlight. The word “Komorebi” reflects the romantic and emotional love of the Japanese for nature. KOMOREBI® is that feeling, walking through the forest in the morning when the day wakes up or the afternoon when the sun goes down and the sun shines through the trees. When the sunlight kisses the ground. This light wind, this smell, this unique moment that makes every morning a special morning. It's not just a word, it’s a feeling."

When water is still for a long period it erodes, festers or becomes stagnant. It's the same with our feelings, if we hold onto them they can get stuck, they can fester and corrode us from within.  Emotions are like water, they need to be felt and then to flow.

Water carries memory and we are made up of more than 70% water (interestingly the earth is also made up of approx. 70% water.) We don't forget our feelings but we don’t need to be defined by them. They will shape us as the river shapes the rocks, but we can choose the quality and shape of the flow.

We all bury or ignore feelings from time to time, we live in the age of distraction!

Life moves so fast and with so much distraction that even the most skilled individuals will find it challenging to make time and space to sit in the calm eddy and process emotions. Nevertheless this build up of unprocessed feelings will often manifest as unhelpful behaviour patterns, difficult interactions with others and in our physical health. Stress and tension are manifestations of blocked flow for one reason or another. 

Chronic stress and a sedentary lifestyle are at the root of all major disease and morbidity.

We can use our physical yoga practice to feel movement and to move feelings. Movement and physical connection to nature gets us out of our heads and into our bodies, into our flow. It's not that our unique individuality is insignificant, but being in that state of ‘I-ness’ makes us forget our ‘Whole-ness’. The element of water helps me to remember that intellectually and viscerally.

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.” - Kahlil Gibran Jr.

Summer is governed by the Pitta dosha and is associated with the elements of fire and water. Pitta dosha governs metabolism and digestion.

We tend to think of digestion as the process of breaking down food for energy, but we also digest emotions, thoughts and the world around us. 

The fiery heat of summer increases our energy and motivation whilst the more expansive quality of water brings more joy and connectedness socially and to our surroundings as we are drawn to get out more. 

Water is the protective nourishing element to balance the firery energy, which can burn out or burn out of control. The energy of summer can be fun, often scheduling in more than we have time for: BBQ's, social gatherings, holidays, festivals, days out, gardening, house projects etc etc. We can balance this busy-ness with the quality of water, qualities of the calm, cool eddy. Making time to pause and replenish in your own unique way with activities that nourish you. Socialising more means we spend time with lots more people, often engaging in more small talk, however making sure you also spend quality time with the people nearest and dearest to you, or with those you have deep meaningful conversations with keeps us in a harmonious cycle. Much like quenching our thirst on a dry, hot day satiates a physical need, making time for self-replenishment, for close friendships pr relationships and for meaningful conversations or activities; satiates our mental, emotional and spiritual needs.

This term we will harness the power of fire and water with Ujjayi breath (known as victorious or Wave breath), fluid movements and gentle flows to feel our bodies and embody our feelings. We will also explore Bija mantras and the effect of sound within our bodies of water.

Bija mantras are one-syllable sounds that serve as the foundation of more complex mantras. The word “Bija” means “seed” in Sanskrit, and just as a seed grows into a tree, the chanting of Bija mantras is believed to grow one’s spiritual energy. The vibrations produced by chanting these mantras resonate throughout the body, helping you connect to higher consciousness, calm the mind, and open blocked energy pathways.

As we are mostly made of water, we are good conductors of sound waves, which means we are more easily influenced physically and emotionally by sound.

I sat listening to the soft, summer leaves in the breeze last week, finding it hard to comprehend how something so small, gentle, soft and full of life can make so much noise when brought together by the changing energy or direction of the breeze. We don't need to be harsh or unkind with our voices and words, but there is great power when we allow ourselves to be moved together.

Maybe some beautiful, unexpected things will blossom from our practice.

The rose doesn't make an effort to give its fragrance, it does not say “come and smell me”, it is always there, whenever or whoever comes near to enjoy the scent.

The beauty of our practice is that it's always there waiting for us, whenever we decide to connect back to it.

Om shanti

🙏

Sophia

Find it in this wonderful independent book shop: https://sherlockandpages.com/products/there-are-rivers-in-the-sky-by-elif-shafak-9780241988749?_pos=1&_psq=there+are+rivers+in&_ss=e&_v=1.0).

From an interview with Elif Shafak (at the Hay Festival) -

"When we talk about identity we need to stop referring to it as a solid, monolithic block. I think we should instead be talking about multiple belongings, much more fluid. There were ancient Greek philosophers who wrote about identity in these terms, like ripples in water. So of course, it's very understandable and beautiful that we feel a very strong sense of love towards our family and friends. that's the small circle, the inner. But then the circle becomes bigger and bigger. So the people in our town, the people in our city, in our region, in our continent. And then the outer circle is entire humankind. If we could think of identity like that, I think it would be easier to connect with people who might seem to be different than us at first glance." https://www.tiktok.com/@hayfestival/video/7509150565411196182

I often feel powerless, and overwhelmed by things happening in our world and the people who have so much power at their fingertips, but connection to water helps me lose the helpless-ness in 'I' and find the power of we, in 'whole-ness'.

There is power in small actions, like choosing where to spend our money. Choosing an independent book store over Amazon or boycotting big or unethical companies may feel like a small act, a drop in the ocean .....

.......but lots of raindrops create a flood!

Also for those interested in an authentic site for kufiya scarves https://www.spindlebysisters.uk/collections/palestinian-hirbawi-kufiya